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The answer

Many of us have been made aware of vitamin D issues in the media and associated health claims around this vitamin. We would direct you to good quality medical information, when you are trying to enhance your knowledge about low levels of vitamin D and its effects. Vitamin D has a number of important functions to perform in the body as you are aware. A major function of vitamin D is to help us absorb phosphate and calcium in the body and this ensures that we have optimum bone health. We obtain most of this vitamin from sunlight (about 90%) and our dietary intake of vitamin D provides the remainder.

In answer to your question, vitamin D in sub-optimal amounts may give rise to the following symptoms in adults; but many of us may not experience any of these symptoms at all with sub-optimal levels of vitamin D. There are a number of other medical conditions that could account for the symptoms that you are experiencing, and these need to be confirmed or excluded by your general practitioner.

Main symptoms in vitamin D deficiency in adults are:

Pain in bony areas, commonly this pain is to be found in the rib, hips, thigh and feet

A generalised feeling of not being well

Muscular aches and weakness in the limbs and back muscles especially.

There has been some recent medical research conducted in the United Kingdom which augments previous research with regard to the cognitive impairment (processing issues), that you may be referring to and low levels of vitamin D. This research was conducted in older adults and you would need to discuss these research findings with your general practitioner. Access to the research findings on cognitive impairment can be found on good quality scientific papers on the internet.